Max Lewis, FOX59 Reporter Breaks Down the Boone County Custody Release Controversy

**Nigel** (0:00)
Hello, my name is Nigel. Jason Hammer is out. The Gun Guy, Guy Relford, Second Amendment Attorney, Licensed Firearms Instructor is filling in.
You and I both reside in Boone County. I saw an interesting story from our news gathering partners, Fox59, about the Boone County prosecutor releasing a statement criticizing the decision of a judge to allow a man of accused attempted murder and several other violent felonies to be released into the custody of a relative. Max Lewis from Fox59 is the reporter on this story. Max, can you maybe start from the beginning here? Give us the big picture.

**Max Lewis** (0:44)
Hey, good afternoon, guys. So yeah, basically what happened was this guy, Roy Lee is his name, 50 years old. He was charged back in May with attempted murder. The court documents say that he apparently tried to drown his girlfriend in the bathtub in his home. They had gotten into a spat because she didn't want to sign a lease with him, or that's what the story was in the court documents. So he was charged with attempted murder, a bunch of other high-level felonies. His attorney asked for his bail to be reduced. It was originally set at $100,000, but the attorney asked for it to be reduced. We don't really know exactly what the arguments they made was, but the judge, the senior judge on this case, John Baker, ruled in his favor and actually didn't even reduce his bail, but actually released him on his own recognizance into the custody of his sister.

**Nigel** (1:36)
And Max, why, I guess, this is controversial for a number of reasons. You mentioned the charge, level one felony, attempted murder. There was criminal confinement. There was domestic battery, bodily injury, intimidation, strangulation. Did the judge, the senior judge, as you put it, as I understand he was filling in?

**Guy Relford** (2:01)
Yeah, let me explain how that works a little bit. A lot of times judges who retire go on senior status. And if this is the same John G. Baker, senior judge that I'm aware of, he actually served on the Indiana Court of Appeals for a long, long time, going back to, I believe, 1989, and served on the Court of Appeals a long time, retired in 2000
And he's the kind of judge, as a senior judge, can be asked to fill in when a judge isn't able to be on the bench. And the normal judge in Boone Circuit Court, and you and I both live in Boone County, like you mentioned, I practice in that court very often.

**Nigel** (2:34)
Laurie Shine, right?

**Guy Relford** (2:35)
Laurie Shine is a circuit court judge, and she's an excellent, excellent judge.
I love having cases. She's smart, she's fair, but apparently she wasn't able to be there. So we had a senior judge sitting in, in the form of John G. Baker, who made the decision to not only as, as our gentleman on the phone said, reduce bail, went the next step and actually O.R.ed him, reduced him on his own, released him on his own recognizance in the custody of his sister.

**Nigel** (3:02)
And Max did, so, so Max Lewis from Fox 59 is reporting this story. Did the judge give a reason why, why somebody that was, like you said, a long list of, of charges there, why he was able to just be released on his own recognizance?

**Max Lewis** (3:19)
Yeah, we got to hold of the judge's order. He didn't explain himself or anything. The only conditions were put on those that Mr. Lee has to stay in his home and in the supervision of his sister, except for, you know, a few various necessary appointments. But there was no explanation given. And Guy's absolutely right. He is a senior judge. He is just filling in for Judge Shine, who is, as we understand, away on vacation. And so why he made this decision, though, is pretty unclear. It was mentioned in the court documents that this man possibly suffers from what they described as sundowning dementia.
But he is only 50 years old, and there wasn't really any other mention of that. I don't know if that explains his actions or not, or if that weighed into the judge's decision. But the judge didn't explain it and just put in his order that he is released to ROR.

**Nigel** (4:13)
What happened, Max, to get him arrested? Can you take us through exactly what happened with him and his girlfriend? I mean, there was an attempted, did I hear attempted drowning?

**Max Lewis** (4:26)
Yeah, so it was, this happened at his apartment in Lebanon.
Police were called there, I believe it was May 22nd, and the last month. Basically, what is stated in the Proud Will Cause affidavit was that the girlfriend and him were talking about possibly signing a lease together. She seemed a little hesitant, didn't want to do so. And then it's almost like he just got mad and snapped. And he apparently filled up his bathtub, held her head under water. And then at one point went and got a knife from the kitchen, came at her and then said he was going to kill himself in front of her. So very violent accusations here. And police did find the bathtub half filled, blood splattered throughout the apartment. So definitely some legitimacy to what they said happened.